Flight attendant diagnosed with coronavirus after flights in and out of Los Angeles, reports say

Flight attendant diagnosed with coronavirus after flight out of Los Angeles

A flight attendant with South Korea's biggest airline tests positive for the coronavirus. Now, Korean Air is allowing customers to change flights, free of charge.

LOS ANGELES - A Korean Air flight attendant tested positive for coronavirus after working on flights in and out of Los Angeles, according to reports from South Korean media.

The flight attendant worked flights between Los Angeles International Airport and Incheon International Airport in Seoul, South Korea, on Feb. 19 and 20, the reports stated.

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The woman had also serviced a flight from Tel Aviv, Israel, to Seoul on Feb. 15, South Korea's Center for Disease Control said.

The Times of Israel reported that the flight attendant was in Israel before coming to L.A., where it's believed she spent time walking around Koreatown before boarding on a return flight to Incheon, South Korea.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is aware of the Times of Israel article and is investigating, but has yet to confirm these reports.

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Korean Air did not confirm the reports, but has closed its operations center at Incheon Airport in order to disinfect the area. The airline is also allowing customers to change flights free of charge as the World Health Organization's declared "global emergency" continues to spread causing fear everywhere.

On Wednesday, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti assured residents that extensive precautions are being taken at the airport to help prevent the virus from spreading.

"We're disinfecting LAX every hour," Garcetti told reporters. "We're making sure that those points of entry and those places where we could see somebody come in and create a vector are secure as we can possibly make them, knowing you can never have 100% security.''

Health officials believe that the novel coronavirus can be transmitted most commonly through respiratory droplets in the air as well as close contact with an infected person or touching areas contaminated with the virus before washing. The digestive tract may also transmit the disease.